Monday, August 26, 2013

Hanging Letters

Every now and then I have a good idea all by myself. It's rare, so we have to celebrate when it happens.

Yesterday I finally hung up pictures and decorations in Nora's room. She has painted wooden letters that spell her name. They're tricky to hang because the letters are different sizes and the ribbons they hang on are slightly different lengths.

I was trying to figure out how to hang them by myself (Jared was outside riding bikes with Nolan!) when I got a bright idea.

I pulled out my poster putty. You may remember this stuff from your college dorm days. Or if you've ever been a teacher then you've most likely used it before. Nora thought it was hilarious that it felt like gum.

I put two blobs of poster putty on the back of each wooden letter.

Then I positioned the letters on the wall where I wanted them. I used a level to get the bottoms of the letters lined up. I had to reposition them a couple times to get the spacing just right.

All the letters were temporarily held up on the wall by the poster putty.

Working with one letter at a time, I pulled the ribbon up as far as it would go, centering the bow above the letter. I drilled a tiny pilot hole right under the bow.

I drilled just enough to make a mark on the wall, then I moved the ribbon down out of the way as I drilled the rest of the pilot hole.

Next I hammered my white nail into the pilot hole.

Then I simply put the bow back up over the nail.

I repeated the process for all of the letters. Voila!

I was going to remove the poster putty since I just needed it to help me hang the letters, but I decided there's really no reason to remove it. It's just extra insurance that the letters won't move.

I hung up Nora's letters, pictures, and all four of her bow holders. AND I unpacked the last box in her room! Jared unpacked the last box in the boys' room, so now we have several box-free rooms!